Which City Has The Most Taxicabs?

[whistlepig]

Which city has the most taxicabs?

1. In the United States,
2. In any other country
3. (1) per capita
4. (2) per capita

Thanks, this is one of those questions where I said, “I can’t find the answer (I tried) but I have a resource . . .”)

Whistlepig

[World_Eater]

http://www.schallerconsult.com/taxi/fb/fb3.htm

As off 2002 New york has about 12,000 real taxis, then another 27,000 livery cabs, 11,000 “Black cars”, and 4500 limos.

According to the above cite at least.

For the world, I can’t dig up much, but I’ll put my money on Mexico city.

[whistlepig]

@World Eater

http://www.schallerconsult.com/taxi/fb/fb3.htm

As off 2002 New york has about 12,000 real taxis, then another 27,000 livery cabs, 11,000 “Black cars”, and 4500 limos.

According to the above cite at least.

For the world, I can’t dig up much, but I’ll put my money on Mexico city.

Great link, but I need a “fact”. The question originally came to me from our research librarian, who knows that I have “other resources”. I haven’t told her about the Straight Dope.

Whistlepig

[Really_Not_All_That_Bright]

Try clicking this- http://www.taxitalk.org.uk/knowledge/viewtopic.php?p=22#22 - in an hour or two.

[World_Eater]

Straight from the horse’s mouth, the NY Taxi and Limousine commision.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/about/about.shtml

Bolding mine.

The TLC licenses and regulates over 50,000 vehicles and approximately 100,000 drivers, performs safety and emissions inspections of the 12,187 medallion taxicabs three times each year, and holds numerous hearings for violations of City and TLC rules and regulations, making it the most active taxi and limousine licensing regulatory agency in the United States.

[World_Eater]

Whoops, I just realized that doesn’t answer the OP, just how many cabs NYC has.

[chukhung]

I’ve always been impressed by the number of taxis seen cruising the streets of Hong Kong (until the rain starts to fall, that is). In absolute terms, I believe Hong Kong beats New York (but is it first in the world? I have no idea).

This page says

Playing one of the key roles in Hong Kong public transport, taxi provides a convenient personalized point-to-point transport service. At present there are 18138 taxis in Hong Kong, o[f] which 15250 are urban taxis, 2838 are NT taxis and 50 are Lantau taxis. Everyday they serve about 1.1 million, 207900 and 1400 people respectively.

The CIA World Factbook gives the total population of the territory as “7,394,170 (July 2003 est.)” for approximately 408 people per taxi in Hong Kong.